Guild Wars 2

Hi.

I have been using sword/axe and GS for some time now with quickening zephyr, signet of the hunt, and flame trap.

I love combining flame trap with leaps, and particularly the whirl from whirling defense (axe 5).

My question is, should I build condition damage, power, or both for a build like this?

Or is really ineffective for me to use the flame trap, and I should use something else instead? Like signet of the wild?

This is purely for PvE/leveling purposes.

I would stick with flame trap, nothing beats it for melting mobs, particularly if you are regularly combining it with leap and whirl finishes. Fighting melee in PvE also forces mobs to stay in your traps.

sticking in melee range I would suggest a bit of toughness mixed into the lot.

If you truly want to play with a condi or condi/power hybrid might I suggest sword/torch sword/axe instead of GS. You’ll be able to lay constant fire fields to get more bang out of condi damage. Otherwise condi gets wasted (flame trap still awesome though for quickly dispatching masses). sword just doesn’t do it alone.

Flame trap all the way because it has the shortest cooldown time. I personally suggest investing in a ranged weapon set. I run SB and Sword/Axe/Horn/2 Greatswords because we need to be flexible to survive certain situations. Having 2 melee weapons with little HP/Toughness will make it hard for you to back off when low and heal unless you got a steady support party member.

Also, leap with healing spring is BOSS. Your party members will love you.

I run a sword/ axe and GS build with 21800 hp, 3k attack, 40% crit chance and 56% crit dmg and 2600 armor (without counting sigils on weapons).
my utility skills are (6) healing spring or heal as one (7) signet of renewal or signet of stone (for passive) or frost trap (great cc with axe 5, sword 2 or gs3) (8) signet of the hunt (for passive mostly)(9) QZ (10) Rampage As one or Entangle.

I build around weapon swapping to consistently keep booms
I also use 2 Moa pets for healing (blue and red have the most beneficial buffs in my opinion) or switch one for fern wolf (regen special) depending on the situation.

I also keep around an LB and SB if time calls for it but im mostly melee ranger.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, always pack a bow in your pack for the few times you run into events where melee won’t cut it.

I love the sword/axe and GS build way too much.

But what I need to know, is for my PvE purposes, what should I build stat-wise?
Power? Condition Damage? Precision? Toughness?

Himei.5379:

Also, leap with healing spring is BOSS. Your party members will love you.

Unfortunately this isn’t true (I was disappointed when I learned this, too). Leap finishers have that nice visual splash, but they only affect you. Blast finishers are the ones that AoE allies.